Dog rescued after being trapped underground

A
lost dog is back home after being rescued from a culvert
in Williamsburg that he was stuck in for more than 24 hours.

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 22:25:38 GMT —

A

lost dog is back home after being stuck in a culvert in Williamsburg for more than 24 hours.

G

randTraverse County rescue crews and neighbors rallied together to save the dog.

T

h

e

12

-

year

-

old dog namedWilson is recovering after spending part of his 4th of July trapped in a culvert off of Bunker Hill Rd.

T

he storystarts Wednesday, when his owner took him out for a walk, but Wilson had another adventure in mind.

"

He decided he wanted to go off into the woods

," Wilson's owner Linda Coburn said.

"S

ohe took of into the ferns and they are so thick and high, so we couldn't see where he went."

Fo

r the rest of the night

,

C

oburn and her husband scanned the woods

,

but couldn't findWilson.

T

he next morning they continued their search

,

but this time they heard a familiar bark.

"

When he yipped

,

t

he sound just resonated all over and we could

n't

tell where it was coming from

," Coburn said.

T

his sound eventually led them to the culvert

.

T

hey couldn't seeWilson, but they knew he was stuck somewhere in the pipe.

"

We were about 10 to 12 feet in from the edge of the embankmentand 8 to 10 feet down," Grand Traverse County firefighter Mike Coursen said. "It took us about an hour to dig it by hand to get an opening big enough where we could actually work on the culvert."

T

heGrand Traverse Fire Department arrived and enlisted the help of some neighbors.

"

The neighborhood was wonderful

,

we had neighbors that we woke up andthey came with shovels," Coburn said. "Everybody was taking turns digging down to that drainage pipe to get down to that dog, it was incredible."

O

nce they got to the pipe

,

they sawed off a section so they could rescueWilson.

T

hey reached in and pulled out a very wet and happy dog.

"

He wanted to lick everybody

," Coursen said.

"

When we pulledhim out he was pretty happy, so we got him out, got some oxygen on him and up to the top."